Oklahoma governor signs Texas-style ban on most abortions

Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt has signed a Texas-style abortion ban that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of being pregnant

By SEAN MURPHY Related Press

3 Might 2022, 23:03

• 4 min learn

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a Texas-style abortion ban on Tuesday that prohibits abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, part of a nationwide push in GOP-led states hopeful that the conservative U.S. Supreme Court docket will uphold new restrictions.

“I need Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state within the country," Stitt tweeted after signing the invoice.

Stitt's signing of the bill comes on the heels of a leaked draft opinion from the nation's high court docket that it's considering weakening or overturning the landmark Roe v. Wade choice that legalized abortion practically 50 years in the past.

The bill Stitt signed takes impact immediately together with his signature, and the Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday denied an emergency request to briefly halt the invoice. Abortion suppliers say now that the new legislation is in impact, they will instantly stop offering services for girls after six weeks of pregnancy.

“While the regulation is in effect, which it now could be as a result of the governor signed it, abortion providers after six weeks will be largely unavailable," said Rabia Muqaddam, a employees attorney for the New York-based Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Oklahoma abortion providers within the case. “It’s a short-term loss, but we’re hopeful that the Oklahoma Supreme Court will still grant us reduction."

The new regulation prohibits abortions once cardiac exercise could be detected in an embryo, which consultants say is roughly six weeks into a pregnancy, before many women know they are pregnant. An analogous bill accredited in Texas last 12 months led to a dramatic discount within the number of abortions performed in that state, with many ladies going to Oklahoma and different surrounding states for the procedure.

Dr. Iman Alsaden, the medical director of Deliberate Parenthood Nice Plains, mentioned Texas' law that took effect in September has given their staff an idea of what a post-Roe country may appear like.

“Since that day, my colleagues and I've often treated patients who're fleeing their communities to seek care," Alsaden stated. “They’re taking time off of work, taking outing of faculty and taking time away from their household responsibilities to get the care that until September 2021 they had been in a position to get safely and readily in their communities."

The bill authorizes abortions if carried out as the results of a medical emergency, but there are no exceptions if the being pregnant is the result of rape or incest.

Like the Texas legislation, the Oklahoma bill would permit non-public citizens to sue abortion providers or anyone who helps a lady obtain an abortion for up to $10,000. After the U.S. Supreme Courtroom allowed that mechanism to remain in place, different Republican-led states sought to repeat Texas’ ban. Idaho’s governor signed the first copycat measure in March, though it has been briefly blocked by the state’s Supreme Court.

Stitt earlier this 12 months signed a bill to make performing an abortion a felony crime in Oklahoma, however that measure shouldn't be set to take effect till this summer season, and legal experts say it's likely to be blocked because the Roe v. Wade determination still stays the regulation of the land.

The variety of abortions performed annually in Oklahoma, which has four abortion clinics, has declined steadily during the last twenty years, from more than 6,200 in 2002 to three,737 in 2020, the fewest in more than 20 years, in line with knowledge from the Oklahoma State Department of Health. In 2020, earlier than the Texas legislation was handed, about 9% of the abortions carried out in Oklahoma had been girls from Texas.

Earlier than the Texas ban took impact on Sept. 1, about 40 ladies from Texas had abortions carried out in Oklahoma every month, the info reveals. That quantity jumped to 222 Texas ladies in September and 243 in October.